Letter: Force others into revals too

David Jolkovski/The Jersey JournalJersey City is starting a revaluation of property process and the letter author wants the rest of Hudson County to do the same.

Mr. Bill Gaughan is a councilman in the Jersey City Heights for 17 years and the chief of staff for Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise for eight years.

Mr. Gaughan has been quoted: "I worked hard to convince the mayor to do the revaluation ..."
I personally believe that this will harm real estate values in Jersey City just as the real estate market starts to recover. The people who have owned their properties the longest will share the largest share of the tax increases.

The Jersey City council has created tax pilots (abatements) for waterfront developers. The council has even reduced those abatements to help developers sell their condos. These tax abatements are protected from any tax increase for the life of their abatement, which is now averaging 20 to 30 years, while the rest of the residents aren't protected.

The Hudson County portion of taxes will also go up. The county tax levy is based on the budget divided by the real estate value of each city in Hudson County. Jersey City will be the only city in the county that has revalued its real estate to 100 percent and will receive the greatest portion of the county tax levy. The ratios in Hudson County range from a low of 22.52 percent for East Newark to a high of 49.33 percent for Weehawken.

Mr. Gaughan, now that you have convinced Mayor Healy to revalue Jersey City, will you now convince the county executive to make all the cities in Hudson County revalue their real estate?

Jersey City government should file a lawsuit to force other cities to revalue their properties. This will protect the Jersey City citizens.